Cameras that read every plate that passes are running inside the city limits. The Police Chief has now said on the record that the City runs two of them, through Motorola/Vigilant, and owns none of the Flock units. What they cost, what policy governs them, and who can search the data are still open. This plate keeps the ledger: what is confirmed, what the community has documented, and what stays an open question until the City answers in full.
An automated license plate reader is a fixed camera with software behind it. Every vehicle that passes becomes a searchable record, whether or not anyone is looking for it.
What the network does with it. Records are compared against "hot lists" of wanted plates and stored in a database that any authorized user in the operating agency can search by plate, description, place, or time window. Flock's published default retention is 30 days, though agencies can set their own. Operators may share their cameras with other agencies, and by default many do, including agencies outside Texas.
Every search leaves an audit entry. Whether anyone in Crockett has ever read that audit log is one of the open questions below.
Sent to City Hall and entered here as the public record. The City's first answer, from the Chief of Police, is posted directly below, verbatim.
Chief Clayton Smith of the Crockett Police Department answered the inquiry by email the same day it was sent. The response is reproduced below in full, verbatim, with nothing removed or paraphrased. Each paragraph is tagged with the numbered question it speaks to.
Good morning,
The camera referenced in your email is a Motorola ALPR camera. That system, along with the other ALPR camera operated by the Crockett Police Department, is maintained through Motorola/Vigilant Solutions.
We began using our first ALPR camera approximately four years ago, and the camera you are referencing on Fourth Street has been operational for approximately two years. The data and information collected by these cameras can be shared with other law enforcement agencies that utilize the same system. However, each individual agency must request access to or the sharing of that information.
The cameras were installed by members of the Crockett Police Department. The Fourth Street camera you referenced was installed by me, Assistant Chief Fajardo, and former Captain Gates.
You are also correct regarding the Flock cameras. Neither the Crockett Police Department nor the City of Crockett owns any of the Flock cameras currently operating in the area.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions or need any further information.
Respectfully,
Chief Smith
A follow-up on Q2 (approval), Q3, Q4, Q5 (agency list) and Q6 is the next entry on the docket. The ledger above now carries what the City has confirmed.
State-linked funding through the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority that helped install or support roughly 3,200 Flock cameras since 2023.
Texas Tribune investigation, via WBAPGov. Abbott froze state-agency spending on Flock cameras. His words on Sept. 1: it is up to city officials themselves to unplug them.
Texas Tribune, 4 Sept 2026Flock cameras run by Texas DPS as of Sept. 2, per an agency email made public by a lawmaker. DPS says it will keep using them.
Texas Tribune, via KSATTexas law-enforcement agencies with signed data-sharing agreements giving them access to the DPS camera network, as of July.
Texas Tribune, 4 Sept 2026Searches of the DPS network in June alone; 48 percent came from outside Texas. More than 2,800 agencies had searched without agreements.
Texas Tribune, 4 Sept 2026Texas cities and counties that have ended, declined, suspended, or reduced a Flock program as of Sept. 6. Pflugerville found its police had shared data with 400+ agencies, only 83 of them under written agreements.
KUT, 8 Sept 2026 · Dallas Express review, via WBAPWhat this means for Crockett. The state has stepped back and put the decision on city halls. If Crockett's cameras were bought with a state grant, the money that sustains them is now in question. If the City has a contract, the council can end it, renew it, or write rules for it in open session. The posted agenda for the Sept. 21, 2026 regular meeting did not include an item on the cameras (agenda). Updated Sept. 27, 2026.
Add your name and street or neighborhood before sending. Residents' emails to the City Secretary are distributed to the Mayor and Council.
Every request filed on this subject, what it asked for, and what came back. Responses are posted here as documents when they arrive.
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